Officials will resume negotiations for a trans-Pacific free trade agreement next month. In Inside Story, Jock Given looks at the potential impact on culture and information industries.

THE FREE TRADE agreement Australia signed in 2004 seemed like the last one that would ever matter for culture and information industries. Negotiating with the global superpower of these sectors, the United States, it was inevitable that concessions would be made beyond those included in Australia’s other trade deals. But once that deal was done, future agreements would be easier. In bilateral negotiations, the other side would never be as strong. In multilateral negotiations, Australia would never be alone.

Things might not be so straightforward. Australia’s trade negotiators are now back at the table doing the job all over again with an unusual group of countries in a changed global economic and political environment.